This invention relates generally to an electrostatographic printer and copier, and more particularly, to removing ink and coating from contact cleaning rolls.
Contact cleaning rolls (CCRs) are presently used to remove dirt and particulates from a moving photoreceptor (such as an AMAT web). Often bar-code ink and solvent coatings build-up and adhere to the surface of the CCR. This ink and coating are presently hand-scrubbed off the CCRs with solvents and cloth wipes. This involves a lot of machine down time because an operator must remove any guarding and re-thread the web. Also, because the operator must reach in the coating equipment to manually scrub the CCRs, a potential safety issue is present.
The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention and may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,914 to Egan discloses a cleaning cloth supply and take-up spools being mounted by rodless supports for rotation about spaced, parallel axes in a frame that is connected to a pneumatic cylinder for reciprocation between opposite ends of a rotating process roll the surface of which is to be cleaned. The cleaning cloth passes over an opening in the frame, and a sponge pressure pad, which is saturated with cleaning fluid, is mounted in the frame to reciprocate toward and away from the opening between an advanced position in which it engages, saturates and urges the registering portion of the clean cloth into contact with the surface of the rotating processing roll, and a retracted position in which the sponge is drawn into the frame completely to disengage the cloth, which therefore disengages the processing roll. The sponge pad retracts and a clean section of cloth is advanced over the frame opening each time the frame reaches one of its limit positions. The take-up and supply spool mounts are adjustable to preset the tension which is developed in the cleaning cloth during its use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,219 to Dellevoet discloses a brush, especially useful for conditioning the surface of a moving body such as a fuser roll in an electrostatic copying machine, comprising a fibrous pile containing wicking fibers which project outwardly from a liquid absorbent sponge-like structure so as to conduct liquid from the sponge-like structure and apply it to the surface of the body. The pile may also contain cleaning fibers in the form of monofilaments which remove particulate matter from the surface of the body.
Application Ser. No. 08/505,931, filed Jul. 24, 1995, entitled "System for Cleaning Electrostatographic Imaging Webs", discloses a contact cleaner roll system, which includes a frame to support the system relative to a moving web having a first major surface and a second major surface, a first rotatable contact cleaner roll supported on the frame disposed for rolling contact with the first major surface of the web, a second rotatable contact cleaner roll supported on the frame disposed for rolling contact with the second major surface of the web, the second rotatable contact cleaner roll having an axis parallel to the axis of the first rotatable contact cleaner roll, the first contact cleaner roll and the second contact cleaner roll being positioned on the frame to support and guide the moving web in a substantially "S" shaped path.